Never before 1951 (and never since) had a Derby High
School basketball team achieved so much. But in 1951, first year coach Ed
Coss guided the Red Raiders to the State Class "B" state title with a
44-39 win over Sacred Heart of Waterbury in the title game played before
more than 3,000 people at Yale's Payne Whitney Gym in New Haven.

Derby entered the tournament with a regular season record
of 11-7 and had to beat Wilcox Tech in a playdown game to qualify for the
round of 16. They then shocked everyone with a 45-42 win over top ranked
Shelton - a team that had defeated them soundly during the regular season.
(Shelton went on to win the State title the very next year!) A win over
Stonington set the stage for the title game.

Sacred Heart had won the state title two years earlier,
but Derby had knocked them out of the 1950 tourney. Derby got off to a
quick start when Jack Kiley was fouled on a play set up for the opening
tap and put Derby ahead - and they were to lead the whole way. Jack Kiley
and Captain Bill Duggan sparked a strong first quarter as the Raiders
jumped to a 17-4 lead on Duggan's buzzer-beater.

Just past the midpoint of the second quarter, Derby opened
the lead to 29-9 with scoring coming from Ron Karlins, Tom Lucian and
Frank Pascuzzo before Sacred Heart cut it to 31-14 at the half.

Bill Duggan's three points were all the Raiders could
muster in the third quarter, and the Hearts cut the once 20 point lead to
2 at 34-32 heading into the deciding fourth quarter.

Sacred Heart cut the lead to one and missed a foul shot
that would have tied it before sophomore Dick Kiley gave derby a lift with
a basket and a couple of foul shots. Sacred heart wasn't dead yet, and
they cut the lead to 40-39 with just under two minutes to go. At that
point Jack Kiley scored his first points of the second half. He then
produced the clinching shot with 40 seconds to go on a pass from brother
Dick. Following a Heart miss, Derby got the ball back and used their
"freeze' to run out the clock. Interestingly, under the rules of
basketball in use at the time, if a team was fouled they had the option of
waiving the foul shot and keeping the ball. Derby did that three times in
the last 30 seconds (Great coaching since they only made 4 of 17 foul
shots in the game!!) to clinch their first and only state title in
basketball!

Bill Duggan was named the Tournament MVP. Most people
probably know Bill better as the long time principal at Bradley School!

An interesting sidelight was the celebration that followed
in town. The next day the High School was dismissed early following a
victory celebration assembly and the students were given the next day off
as well!